Legislature fails to vote on beer, wine license for Super Fresh

Grocery store still expected to open by end of year

Super Fresh will not be selling beer and wine in its Rockville Town Square grocery store when it opens this year.

The state bill that would have allowed a special exception for the grocery store to sell beer and wine did not make it out of a House of Delegates subcommittee by the end of the legislative session on Monday.

The bill was supported by both the Montgomery County House and Senate delegations, as well as the City Council.

"We're very disappointed that the liquor industry in the state continues to have the stranglehold on the Maryland legislature," Mayor Susan R. Hoffmann said Tuesday. "We received opposition from groups outside the city and even outside the county … those wholesalers don't do business in the county and yet they came and testified in opposition."

Spokespersons for The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, the parent company of Super Fresh, and Federal Realty Investment Trust, which manages the retail component of Town Square, did not return phone messages or e-mails seeking comment for this report.

Robin McBride, FRIT vice president and chief operating officer for the mid-Atlantic region, told council members in February that she expects Super Fresh will open by the end of this year.

Small beer and wine merchants, minority groups and statewide alcohol retail associations have opposed the legislation, saying that allowing a special exception for Super Fresh would hurt the small businesses and set a bad precedent.

For Paul Mugge, who owns Tiger Beer and Wine one block from Town Square, said it is a victory for his family business and other small beer and wine shop owners.

"It's absolutely good news," Mugge said.

Mugge testified at nearly every hearing along with other small beer and wine merchants, backed by the Maryland State Licensed Beverage Association, Maryland Beer and Wine Association and the Korean American Association of the State of Maryland.

The special exception would have made Super Fresh the first chain grocery store in Maryland to obtain a beer and wine license since a law was passed decades ago preventing chain grocery stores from obtaining licenses. The law, some legislators said, was aimed at preserving the mom-and-pop stores.

There are four grocery stores in Montgomery County that sell beer and wine because they already had licenses when the law was passed.

Hoffmann said Super Fresh officials are looking into the possibility of having a third-party beer and wine business adjacent to the grocery store, which would not require legislation.